Elena Ferrante is one of my favorite writers and I was terrified when I heard that "My Brilliant Friend" (2011), the first novel in the series, was getting the small screen treatment. Although I've occasionally loved book adaptations, I typically find they pale in comparison to the source material. The best ones elevate the original text by adding an interpretative lens that emphasizes specific themes, relationships, characters, etc. When I watch an adaptation, I want to feel like I'm being guided toward a specific POV, not in a manipulative way, but as one fan to another saying, "This is what's important to me."
Although Saverio Costanzo's adaptation isn't perfect, I've enjoyed it tremendously and I'm curious to see if it holds up to additional scrutiny. By the time the show premiered in 2018, it had been years since I read book one. When I first watched, I obviously knew the bones of the story, but I was far enough removed that I could take the show at face value without constant comparison to the novel. During this go-around, I'm reading and watching simultaneously so that I can analyze both. It's a great distraction from Trump's impending second term (how the fuck), so why not join me?